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I can't find the elevator. [Pause.] This isn't the Scrapyard, is
Hang on. Something's moving i
[A long pause, then, slashing across the page in haphazard strokes as if it's being written while running:]
thing following me
hasnt got a head
how do I get out
( Read more... )
Hang on. Something's moving i
[A long pause, then, slashing across the page in haphazard strokes as if it's being written while running:]
thing following me
hasnt got a head
how do I get out
( Read more... )
She concentrates, trying to discern what direction Kurayami is in. It's... vague; her talents with the Force don't lie in this direction, but she needs it to work for this, so she pushes herself until she picks up a glimmer.]
I believe she is this way. Be watchful; there is danger everywhere here.
[She begins hurrying in that direction as she feels other--things begin to take shape around them. Not threats, not yet, but they will be.]
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She watches Handmaiden concentrating, and once she has pinpointed a location, she quickly follows.]
What sort of place is this? It feels as though a menace of some kind is lingering here, and yet I can't make sense of what it is.
[She stays close to Handmaiden, not wanting to become separated, but the further she goes, she becomes increasingly aware of shadows gathering and forming into things she can't quite make out. What's most unnerving is that they seem to be following her...]
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Kurayami crouched low, not quite leaning against the door she'd slammed shut. She'd had to fumble wildly in the darkness for a latch before her hands touched the metal of the bar she'd pulled into place to lock it, and the surfaces she'd touched in the meantime had...smeared.]
Idiot. [She pressed her knuckles to her eyes, briefly. They were the cleanest parts of her hands at the moment and she was not going to panic again. A faint glimmer of light slipped through a crack in the rusty door, and she glanced at where she'd set down her journal on the floor to best take advantage of it. Nothing from the people who'd promised to come ( ... )
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[She can't use her technique of speeding herself with the Force--that would leave Spear behind, and obviously she's not going to do that. The fear that pervades this place is hard to sense through, but she keeps a tight hold on that sense, the one that is becoming more clearly defined as a living being.
It's coming from within an abandoned school. Handmaiden kicks open the door, sensing no immediate danger on the other side, and looks around quickly. And then sees it: a shapeless figure in white. Without thinking, she calls on the Force to slam it into the wall, and it slumps to the ground.]
This way!
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[Spear is momentarily taken aback by Handmaiden's sudden movement, but only temporarily. She quickly regains her composure and follows the other woman through the door, keeping her eyes focused on the path ahead, and not the lurking shadows that seemed to be creeping closer.]
I think that I heard something, coming from that direction.
[Spear points to a room a short distance away from where they currently are.]
Do you sense anything dangerous over there? I know that the danger is everywhere, but I know I heard something.
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It was a baseball bat, pale with dust. Something about it--she wanted to laugh, suddenly, looking at it, and she couldn't remember why.
The feeling vanished instantly as another soft creak sounded off to her left, followed by a dusty scuffling sound and a moist thump. Kurayami took a step back, her senses on such high alert that her own footsteps seemed as loud as slamming doors--]
Aah! [Music twisted up out of the back corners of her mind and blared a set of opening chords that drowned out any hint of other sound. Kurayami cried out, horrified--not the damn song, not now--]
Not now! No! [She staggered back a step, struggling to hear past the words of the singer. Something moved in the shadows, sending a cracked old basketball rolling across the floor, and she raised the bat again, trying to ignore ( ... )
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[She cuts off when she hears the muffled sound of the yell, coming from the direction Kurayami is in. And there's a sudden spike in the Force, a warning of danger, battle.]
Hurry! The creatures are there.
[And she begins running. Another white shape jumps in front of her and she grabs it around what could be called its throat, hurling it into the wall before a horrible feeling takes hold of her--was that a face, a face she knows?!
No time. There's the gymnasium, time to go go go!]
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..It's him!
[Spear's voice sounds strangled, and for a moment, she hesitates, riveted to one spot. But as the white-haired thing moves towards her, her instincts kick in, and she lashes out with her spear in a wide sweep, leaving a bloodless gash on the specter in front of her.]
I'm coming, Handmaiden.
[The firs specter taken care of, she enters the gymnasium, and takes a quick look around, looking for the woman they came to rescue. But her attention is diverted by the sudden appearance of three more white-haired shapes. Again, she lashes out at them with her spear, while continuing to look for Kurayami.]
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[Kurayami gritted her teeth, willing the music to shut up--bad enough that she'd hardly slept in the last three nights, that she felt sick and dizzy every time she heard it, that the words felt like someone knocking on her gravestone--
--and in the shadows of the storage room, something gleamed. A single, eerie light, bobbing at eye level. Kurayami backed away as it shuffled closer, feeling nausea rise in her throat as she stared down that single, unblinking eye.]
Hello?
[Something slithered over her shoulder, and she flinched away, then bit back a yell of pain as its grasp closed on her still-tender wing, wrenching at the brace. She struck out behind her with her elbows and felt them strike and slide off of soft, damp flesh. The grip loosened, and she stumbled forward and turned ( ... )
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There are five this time. Five female figures in white, faces without form except for their damning blue eyes. They advance on her and for an instant she's paralyzed, dread swamping her before the first strike triggers her reflexes and she ducks, driving her fist into its stomach and extending her quarterstaff.
Lightning, the Force whispers, the dark part, and her fingers itch. But she won't use it. She hurls the Force hard, lifting the central figure up in an invisible whirlwind and toppling the other four like bowling pins. And then Kurayami's panicked scream grabs her attention and she runs towards it ( ... )
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[Spear shouts the words in Handmaiden's direction, and then moves off to try and relocate the elevator. But of course, she knows doing so won't be easy, thanks to the enemies that are following her. Taking down one of them was one thing; fighting off three was completely different. Spear found herself reacting instinctively to each attack, mostly using her weapon to slash and stab whenever she could ( ... )
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I'm all right! [She shouted it in response to the questions, feeling a surge of black anger at these things that almost blotted out the pain of her aching wing and the cuts on her shoulder and cheek. How dare they grab her, attack her, scare her, hurt her ( ... )
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She needs the light side. All around her is dark, dark, dark--its whispers grow louder, plucking at her. It isn't temptation. It simply makes sense to call on it. So efficient, so easy, just waiting for her to reach in and grab it--that's all it would take and they could get out of here now.]
Lies--
[Handmaiden swings her staff at one of the blue-eyed figures, feeling it connect with an unpleasant squish. She tries to ignore the urge to gag as she slams the other half into its head. It falls off.
And she sees the flames, feels the heat. Again she reaches through the Force to yank the things back, hopefully clearing a gap that Spear can escape through.]
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If we're going to escape, we need to get out of this room. The elevator is somewhere outside.
[She opens her mouth to say more, to offer another suggestion, but cuts off as three more of the white-haired things materialize from the shadows and immediately bear down on her.]
Is this never going to end? Handmaiden, Kurayami, we need to try and reach the door.
[She thinks that if they can just get out of the building, and find the elevator, then they stand a good chance of escaping. The specters continue their advance, and Spear continues attacking them when they come too close.]
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There's a door back there--it's how I got in! [It's closer than however they came, at least. Memory lurches in her stomach, and she qualifies the statement.] There might be...something out there, but I think there was only one--
[Something thumps into her from behind, and she's knocked forward onto her knees; desperate and running on adrenaline by now, she slaps off the floor with both hands and manages to push back up to her feet again, staggering forward and away from whatever it was. Hitting them feels--wrong, it reminds her of--she doesn't know, but she doesn't like it, but--glancing back at what grabbed at her, she sees a bobbing, glowing eye, and in the shadows of the room behind it are more, and more, like a flock of approaching fireflies ( ... )
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[There's a tone to her voice that suggests that a meteorite crash would have a hard time changing her mind. And there, across the hall, are the elevator doors. The slick, shining steel stands out quite clearly in the gloom. Handmaiden doesn't question why it's moved into the school, but she isn't going to complain about it.
Her way is barred by the five not-women again. Handmaiden lashes out with the quarterstaff, again feeling queasy and now swamped by guilt as well. She can't--these are not real. That is, they are not whatever her instincts believe them to be. They're certainly real enough to hurt her--as the kick to her back demonstrates.]
There it is! Run!
[She lashes out with the staff again, swallowing the nausea.]
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